Archie - Pokémon: 3 Deaths: 0
Blue - Pokémon: 4 Deaths: 0
{Monua 18th, 8:21PM}
{Route 204}
Please be okay, please be okay, please be okay... Archie thought as he ran away from the cave and back toward the pond where Prince had gone to. It was dark and cold and both Blue and Star were following not too far behind.
"PRINCE!" Archie bellowed, trying to look around and catch a glimpse of a Piplup. The night wasn't making it easy for him. "PRINCE, WHERE ARE YOU?!"
"I see him!" Star reported, sprinting faster and catching up with the Aqua Leader. "In the water!"
Archie gritted his teeth. Dammit, I wish I'd been wearing Juan's diving stuff under my clothes... Although once they got close enough to the pond, diving turned out to be unnecessary.
Prince had been slowly nudged over to the pond's edge by a Magikarp, allowing Archie to kneel down and scoop the unresponsive Piplup up into his arms.
"Heard you shouting. Thought this might be your guy..." the Magikarp offered quietly.
"Is...Is he okay?" Star asked worriedly, standing up on her hind legs so she could nudge Prince with her nose.
"He's just unconscious," Archie said, the Shinx visibly relaxing and settling back down on the grass. The Aqua Leader picked one of the Pokéballs off his belt and returned Prince.
"Do you know what happened?" Blue asked, looking at the Magikarp.
"I was just...practicing my Splash," the Pokémon started, flapping its fins in what could be translated as a shrug. "Accidentally knocked into this guy flying over me..."
"Piplup can't fly," Archie said, confused.
"He was being carried by some kind of purple Pokémon..." the Magikarp continued, sinking into the water a little and averting his gaze. "Round and floaty and with a yellow cross on it..."
"I have no idea what kind of Pokémon that is," Archie said. He looked up at Blue to see if the gym leader had any suggestions or knowledge. It was hard to see what exactly it was because of the dark, but the younger man pulled a sort of electronic booklet out of his pocket and flipped it open. After a little button-pressing, Blue eventually crouched down beside Archie and held the device out for the Magikarp to see.
"Was it this?" Blue asked, showing the illuminated picture of a purple balloon-like Pokémon. It had a small cloud-shaped tuft on its head, and a yellow cross in the front just as the Magikarp described. The species name seemed to indicate 'Drifloon', and Archie stopped reading the description after the bit that mentioned soul-stealing.
"Yeah, it was that one," the Magikarp confirmed. Blue shut the device and pocketed it again.
The Aqua Leader turned to the Magikarp again, smiling. "Thank you for rescuing Prince."
"It was just a coincidence..." the Magikarp muttered timidly.
"One that saved his life," Archie insisted calmly, reaching a hand out to carefully touch the layer of red scales. "Still, that must've been one heck of a Splash if you managed to knock out Prince with it," he chuckled.
"I always thought Splash was kinda useless," Star remarked.
"Splash can get Magikarp over mountains if they grow strong enough," Archie snorted. "But most of them evolve into Gyarados as soon as they get the opportunity. The lower evolutions are too easy to prey on, and Gyarados have such a reputation of being dangerous that once they evolve nobody really goes after them anymore." He turned to the Magikarp again. "What about you? What're you gonna be?"
"...Food, probably..." the Pokémon mumbled.
"Not if you come with us," Star smirked. Archie stared at her. "This big fellow here is an expert in water-types. I bet he could raise your entire pond into Gyarados."
"Yeah, but...I'm just a lousy little Magikarp..." the Pokémon sighed dejectedly. Archie pressed his lips. "Who would even have the patience for that?"
"I would," Archie stated firmly, plucking the Magikarp out of the water. The latter stared at him, wide-eyed. "Just watch me. You'll be a Gyarados in a week."
"The baby army grows," Blue noted placidly behind him.
"You don't have a problem with that, do you?" Archie asked, looking up at the gym leader.
Blue shrugged. "I'm just a little surprised that this time you willingly accepted a new team member, instead of them just adding themselves."
"Well then, welcome to our crew," Archie said with a smile, turning to the Magikarp in his hands again. "What's your name?"
"Mark."
Archie bristled.
"...Hon, are you okay?" Star asked, looking slightly confused.
"I'm fine," the Aqua Leader assured quickly. "I, uh...knew someone called Marc. Kinda ruined the name for me. Long story."
"Sorry..." Mark apologized, looking away.
Archie held Mark closer. "You haven't done anything." He smirked. "I'll be counting on you to make your name one I can be proud of."
{Monua 19th, 11:24AM}
{Oreburgh}
{Oreburgh Gate}
"So according to the map, the mines are that way," Archie announced, looking up in direction of something that looked like a construction site poking out from behind a giant, rocky wall, at the other end of the town. They'd emerged from the cave at around lunch time and stepped out to find a tiny plateau with stairs leading down into a valley with several buildings aligned and a few sandy roads that connected them all.
The Aqua Leader shifted his grip on the Magikarp in his arms, Prince and Star hopping up behind him. He'd released the Piplup before going through the cave in morning to see how he was doing and if he was feeling any better. He also gave Prince time to introduce himself to Mark properly and thank him for the help before they wandered through. The Piplup and Shinx both split the task of making way for them equally, Prince handling the Geodude that came their way, and Star zapping the Zubat that tried to swoop down on them. Mark was securely wrapped in Archie's arms and slowly growing.
"Right, well that's where we're headed, then," Blue said as Archie pocketed the map again. "Unless you wanna kill time and take up the gym challenge," Blue added jokingly.
Archie paused.
"You know, I might actually do that," Archie decided. Blue raised a surprised brow a him. "Probably rock or ground-types, right? Sounds like good practice for Prince."
"We shall accept any challenge you give us!" Prince declared, puffing his chest proudly.
"Are you sure you wanna run right up to the head of local law enforcement like that?" Blue questioned.
Archie tugged at a few strands of his wig, pressing his lips at the blonde color covering his black hair. "Well, my disguise has been working so far..."
"Can I count on you not to run away while I'm not looking?" Blue asked.
Archie scowled. "I'm not going anywhere." Not as long as the bastard still has Shanks, anyway…
"Perfect, see you at the Pokémon Center later or something," Blue said, raising a hand in a semi-wave as he started walking away. "Go break a leg."
"We will not condone any leg-breaking!" Prince shouted after him.
"He's just wishing us luck, Prince," Archie chuckled. "If anyone does break a leg you can always yell at him about it when we meet with him again after. Star, Mark, I'm going to be returning the two of you."
"What?!" Star complained. "Why? What did we do?"
"Hey now, it's not punishment for anything!" Archie answered. "But city laws only let us have one Pokémon out at a time. I got away with having both you and Prince out in Jubilife because Blue was around and didn't take out any of his, so it looked like we had one each, but now he's buggered off elsewhere and I'll be taking on the gym with Prince." He leaned down best as he could with Mark still in one arm so he could pat the crestfallen Shinx. "Look, I promise that as soon as we're done we'll go to the Pokémon Center, alright? That's the only place I can afford to bring you back out until Blue gets back."
Star sighed. "Fine, fine… Remember, hon, you promised." Archie nodded and returned both the Shinx and the Magikarp before walking off with Prince.
{Monua 19th, 11:59AM}
{Oreburgh}
{Oreburgh Gym}
All around Oreburgh were giant mounds of deposit from the mines, some so large and old that they'd hard-packed down into hills solid enough to build on. The gym building was next to one of the larger hills, though maybe it would be more accurate to say warehouse. As Archie approached the huge sheet-metal building, he could see that it was actually built partway into the slope. He pushed open the rolling door at the entrance, under the welded sign saying 'GYM', and stepped inside.
He'd expected the deposit slope to have been flattened out or hollowed out to accommodate the gym building, but in fact it continued on inside. A few miners and their kids were hanging out on the slope, conducting casual battles. The slope did seem to level out at the top, however.
Although, as he'd expected from a gym, it had only been a matter of time before some of the trainers around had wanted to test Archie out before letting him up to meet the gym leader.
"Awww! Grant!" Darius complained, returning his fallen Geodude and hugging the Pokéball. The father patted Darius on the shoulder.
"C'mon, the dorm guys have a healing machine in their main room," he said, jerking his thumb over his shoulder at the top of the hill. "The leader'll be in there somewhere too. We'll give him a shout that he's got a real challenger on his hands!"
"Thanks," Archie said, following the pair of them to the top of the slope. It levelled out into a large, flat plateau, with a standard forty-by-twenty meter battlefield chalked out on top of it. Behind the Leader's box was a door, which Darius and his father went through. Archie stopped in the challenger box to wait. Prince hopped up beside him.
"Are Star and Mark not going to watch?" Prince asked. "We would have quite enjoyed the spectators to witness our victory."
"Gym regulations," Archie explained, tapping the Pokéballs on his belt. "You can only have one out at a time, same as in the city. I'm counting on you to handle this alone; Mark isn't strong enough yet, and Star's attacks won't work on ground-types. You're the only one who can do any damage, so get ready to show our opponent what you're made of!" Prince fluffed his chest up proudly. Oh yeah, he was definitely ready to roll.
"Welcome!"
Archie looked up to see the gym leader swagger onto the battlefield. He was surprised to see that he was just a kid- a generous estimate would put him at fifteen, a pale and skinny boy with glasses and dirty red hair. He was followed by a surprisingly powerful-looking Pokémon that Archie didn't recognise, a lot tougher than what Prince would be able to handle- a sort of floating steel disc with one large red eye in the middle, and another two eyes on each side, accompanied by magnets. Each side also had a screw poking out, and a yellow antenna sticking out from the center.
"A Magnezone!" Prince gasped. "This human is blessed by Coronet!"
"He's what?" Archie asked, confused.
"Magnezone are divine forms that Magneton can only evolve into on Mt Coronet. The leader's companion was blessed by sacred energy and evolved!"
The Aqua Leader glanced back up at the teen, somewhat torn between curiosity and wanting to forget the challenge after all. Prince definitely couldn't take on a Magneton, much less an evolution of it…
The teen pushed up his slightly oversized helmet and smirked at Archie. "This is Oreburgh Pokémon gym, and I'm… Roark, the Gym Leader!"
"Apprentice gym leader," the Magnezone corrected placidly.
"Shut up, Mag," Roark groaned. "I'm the one in charge today, and I walk proudly with my Rock-type Pokémon!" He released what appeared to be a floating rock until it unfolded its arms and glared at Archie, turning out to be a Geodude. "Hardasses like Gadin here."
"Wait, it was our understanding that only Pokémon was permitted to be released at a time?" Prince questioned. "What about your Magnezone?"
"I'm his nanny," Mag answered as parts of its body twisted into what was probably a smile.
"It has nothing to do with that, shut up Mag!" Roark snapped. "Mag's got special permission to be out even during battles. Not planning to use him for this, anyway, Gadin's more than enough to take your team out. Let's see how tough you and your Pokémon are!"
"You're probably gonna need more than just your Geodude," Archie smirked. "This little fellow is plenty to take out a cocky punk kid like you! PRINCE!"
"'Cause that's not a cocky name at all," Roark said, rolling his eyes. "Rock Throw!"
"Bubble!" Archie commanded. Prince spat off a blast of bubbles as Gadin scooped rocks out of the group and flung them at Prince. In any other scenario, in all logic, the rocks ought to have popped the bubbles without slowing and bludgeoned Prince. In a Pokémon battle, however, with the powers of Pokémon fuelling the attacks, it was the bubbles that split the rocks into gravel and slammed Gadin into the ground. He was immediately knocked out by the onslaught of bubbles.
"Oh, great, a water-type," Roark grumbled, returning Gadin. He replaced the Geodude with a long, hulking Onix. "Orin! Stealth Rock!"
"Bubble again!" Archie ordered. Orin swung his long tail, sending rocks flying through the air, but all of them went past Prince whereas all of Prince's bubbles hit Orin. It was almost absurd, watching the titanic rock-type go crashing to the ground under the onslaught of bubbles.
"Two for two," Prince smirked smugly, crossing his wings. "You had best not underestimate one of royal blood." Roark returned Orin, but he was still smirking.
"I assume you have more Pokémon?" Archie asked.
Roark nodded, still smirking. "As soon as Orin's done," he promised.
"What do you-" Archie began. He was cut off when a boulder flew past his head, shooting straight towards Prince. "Prince!"
The boulders that Orin had flung around wildly before hadn't crashed to a halt anywhere. They looped back around and slammed into Prince, one after the other. Rock-type attacks weren't particularly effective against Prince, but they didn't need to be when seven boulders went crashing into the little Piplup.
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So as a note, I've gone back and updated all the previous chapters with date, time and location before each scene, just like in this one. The same system will be used in Dimensional Destruction, and it'll allow people to see the exact timelines better. It's a vague sneak-peek into our next batch of OCs that are really just cameos from elsewhere so if anyone gets the reference you can look forward to a few renamed-and-nuzlockified characters coming from there XD Since the Pokémon world has it's own month names, as you probably noticed, here's a reminder:
January - February - March - April - May - June - July - August - September - October - November - December
Honua - Suinua - Arnua - Shanua - Gronua - Kyonua - Reginua - Artinua - Zanua - Monua - Jinua - Darnua
(Thus putting the current events to happen in the equivalent of October)
Also the gym battle was originally meant to be full scene, but then I was worried that it got too long, so Mangaluva and I agreed to split it at a cliffhanger moment because Archie worrying about Prince at every chapter start is the new running gag. Gym scene was written by Mangaluva, with a few small edits on my end.
ARCHIE
Shanks the Sharpedo, Prince the Piplup, Star the Shinx, Mark the Magikarp
Name: Mark. Species: Magikarp. Nature: Lonely. Ability: Swift Swim. Location: Route 204. Level: 5
BLUE
Sam the Blastoise, Pete the Pidgeot, Adam the Alakazam, Gary the Arcanine